Sunday, 19 February 2017

Decorating Progress

It felt a bit like spring this weekend. The sun had a little warmth in it and we were hot in our coats when we walked down to the woods with Molly. There was a moment yesterday when all the windows were open and washing was flapping on the line (the first time this year!) and I felt so happy. I've been busy - with a lot of help from my lovely parents - working in Angus's bedroom over the last two days and I thought you might like to see a few photos of our progress.

Angus's bedroom was emptied and the carpet pulled up and taken to the tip where it belongs. The floorboards are in much better condition that I could've hoped which bodes well for my plans to paint the boards in our bedroom later this year.

Small parcels have been arriving through the post over the last week - prints, stamps, felt balls for a garland, sheets of wool felt to make a wall hanging.

I'm really pleased with this stamp from here and it will come in very handy on Christmas labels.

For now, I am experimenting with using it on fabric. It doesn't produce the solid black colour on fabric that it does on paper, but I still love the look of it. I put a piece of cardboard inside this pillowcase, to prevent the ink seeping through to the other side. Then I heat sealed the ink with a hot iron and now, apparently, it should be washable. I haven't tried yet. I'm a bit nervous to be honest.

The urge to stamp everything continued with Angus's plain white roller blind, a potato, and some fabric paint.

Again I sealed the paint by pressing down with a hot iron onto a clean tea towel over the blind. I'm not sure if I think this semi-circle pattern is brilliant or terrible. There was a horrible moment when I dropped the ink-covered vegetable right onto the middle of the blind and thought oh bugger, I'll have to carry on with it now. We'll see what it looks like when it's back up in Angus's window. If it's terrible I'll just keep pulled up at all times and he can enjoy looking at the moon....

While my parents were painting the cream and blue bedroom walls white, I was busy working on the bed in the garage. After my experiments with chalk paint on my dressing table a couple of years ago, I decided to do this properly, by sanding and undercoating before applying a top coat of eggshell paint suitable for wood. (I am still yet to be convinced by chalk paint - that dressing table has worn so badly and chips almost every time something is knocked against it.)

I was dreading sanding the bed but it took very little time at all and wasn't nearly as caked in varnish as I'd thought it would be.

Molly came out to investigate.

She's sniffing above the fridge and freezer because that's where we keep her sack of dog food.

Then I applied two coats of grey undercoat.

And, so far, one of top coat. I'll see what it looks like tomorrow morning in daylight and probably do another.

Tomorrow afternoon the carpet is being laid, then we can start to move some of the furniture back into Angus's bedroom. At the moment he is sleeping on his mattress on the floor of Bella's bedroom, where he is very cosy but you can't really open the door very far so it's all a bit squashed. But, so far so good.

It's half term for us now and we'll be spending most of it with family, so I don't think much will happen now until next weekend, but there's no rush. Happy half term to those of you on holiday, and have a good week back at school/work to those of you who've already enjoyed your break.

19 comments:

You've made good progress! You're brave to stamp the fabric, I think I'd mess that up very badly if I tried it. I'm sure it will look just as nice as the bought version of the bedding. Have a great break!

Gosh - you're lucky with those floorboards; they're beautiful. The stamping looks great fun but I'm not sure that my nerve would hold! The bed is glorious too - I would love to do that with our double bed (it's that yucky, orange pine) but am slightly daunted by whole process. I think I may try it on something smaller first. I can't wait to see the big reveal of Angus' room. Enjoy your half term. xx

Half term is just a distant memory here.... enjoy yours! I am impressed that you are doing all that sanding yourself, I'd be far too lazy. The grey looks fab, much nicer than the yellow pine. I am now feeling the urge to re-organise James' and Alistair's bedroom... but I may wait with the suggestion until we finished painting the extension!

Hey Gillian,I like the stamping pursuits very much. And the prints are lovely too. You have an eye for these things. I tend to fall at the third hurdle. I always use eggshell paint; chalk paint is inferior. Have a great half term!Leanne xx

Great progress and I'm looking forward to seeing it come together. The bed looks so good painted and is tempting me to paint the pine cupboards in my kitchen. Have a fun week and enjoy the break from school routine.

I use stamps for cards and have done for a long time - Here is a tip to try - I had some stamps which came with a dense foam mat to go underneath so that the pressure from the stamp is distributed more evenly. It is the sort of foam that blocking mats are made out of but smoother, you get a much better image with it. Also add ink to stamp by dabbing the pad onto the stamp not stamp to ink pad.(if that makes sense!) Anyway, I think it looks good with some irregularities but I know you like to do things well. Jo xx

We have carpeted Angus's bedroom as he spends so much time lying on the floor reading or playing, but we plan to paint the floorboards in our bedroom white, or might just leave them - depends on what state they're in!

All looking very tasteful. I do hope there will be some plastic tat in evidence too, if only to make me feel better about the 'carefully curated' displays of Macdonalds toys, Lego minifigures and Japanese erasers littering every surface in P's room.

I /love/ the blind, its brilliant. And very impressed with the tree stamping too.

Just caught up with all your posts from the end of last month and this month too. You have been busy with lots of creative things as usual. I'm glad we had this week as half term and it was T&S's birthday and so we could afford to be a bit more relaxed and enjoy it all the more.I'm glad we have an IKEA to hand and I have to say that I find it quite easy to come out with more than I went in to buy!Lisa x